Deck 6: Critical Approaches to Organizations and Communication

Question 1

Jeremy Bentham's panopticon is a design for an ideal

A) organization.
B) computer system.
C) highway system.
D) prison.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The Internet has become a valuable tool for organizing grassroots campaigns against corporate domination. The Internet is an example of what Ganesh, Zoller, and Cheney would call

A) global transformation.
B) resistance.
C) critical organizational theorizing.
D) employee dissent.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

In French and Raven's types of social power, which type of power is based on the perception that certain behaviors will lead to punishments?

A) Reward
B) Coercive
C) Legitimate
D) Referent

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which of the following concepts refers to the process of employees at all levels willingly adopting and enforcing the legitimate power of the organization, society, or system of capitalism?

A) Progressive capitalism
B) Manufactured consent
C) Hidden power
D) Hegemony

Question 5

Our basic, often unexamined assumptions about how things are or ought to be stem from our

A) hegemony.
B) work-life narratives.
C) theoretical constructs.
D) ideology.

Question 6

Critical organizational theory views power as

A) transparent and worthy of critique.
B) impossible to interrogate.
C) hidden but pervasive.
D) a sinister force.

Question 7

Which economic strategy occurred between the Industrial Revolution and the early 1970s and is characterized by corporate and individual growth in economic well-being?

A) Marxism
B) Communism
C) Taylorism
D) Progressive capitalism

Question 8

Even when individuals are given the chance to be creative and to self-organize, they often reproduce systems where they police themselves through things such as arbitrary rules and burdensome systems of accountability. Which of the following concepts best illustrates this process?

A) Concertive control
B) Progressive capitalism
C) Critical organizational theorizing
D) Manufactured consent

Question 9

Which of the following concepts demonstrates the process of "forgetting" that socially constructed meanings have actually been socially constructed?

A) Hegemony
B) Reification
C) Ideology
D) Progressive capitalism

Question 10

Critical approaches to organizational communication pose difficult and important questions about

A) creating horizontal communication.
B) increasing efficiency and effectiveness.
C) the nature of power and control.
D) promoting managerial sense making.

Question 11

Which of the following is not a critical mode of being?

A) Being filled with care
B) Being filled with thought
C) Being filled with good humor
D) Being filled with community

Question 12

Borrowing heavily from French philosopher Michel Foucault, many critical scholars now view power as operating primarily in and through

A) dialogue.
B) bureaucracy.
C) discourse.
D) discipline.

Question 13

What type of narrative often reveals the beliefs and values of a culture and tells the stories of legendary heroes, of good and evil, and of origins and exits?

A) Myths
B) Ethnographies
C) Metaphors
D) Work-life narratives

Question 14

Although individuals often uphold democratic principles when it comes to systems of government, they are more than willing to leave those democratic ideals at the door when it comes to the workplace. Which of the following functions of ideology helps explain this point?

A) Ideology naturalizes the present through reification.
B) Ideology functions as a form of control.
C) Ideology denies system contradictions.
D) Ideology represents individual interests to be universal.

Question 15

Which of the following systems of control was established to replace bureaucracy but is often more stringent and less forgiving than bureaucratic controls?

A) Concertive control
B) Manufactured consent
C) Network control
D) Critical control

Question 16

Critical theory first emerged in response to unfair working conditions during which of the following eras of history?

A) The Renaissance
B) The Victorian period
C) Post-Industrial Revolution
D) Post-9/11

Question 17

When individuals distance themselves from organizational power, they are said to be engaging in

A) ideologies.
B) resistance.
C) power plays.
D) storytelling.

Question 18

An organizational myth about which of the following individuals suggests that anyone can "make it" in the workplace, regardless of his or her background?

A) Karl Marx
B) Donald Trump
C) Horatio Alger
D) Michel Foucault

Question 19

The old social contract idealized

A) individual commitment.
B) hard work.
C) loyalty.
D) All of the options are correct.

Question 20

A significant number of U.S. employees cite work as a growing source of

A) creativity.
B) stress.
C) achievement.
D) security.

Question 21

Which of the following concepts is not one of the four functions of ideology?

A) Representing sectional interests as universal
B) Reification
C) Making power transparent
D) Control

Question 22

Resistance operates only through small-scale efforts.

Question 23

Mentors and charismatic leaders are most likely to embody which of the following types of power?

A) Expert
B) Legitimate
C) Reward
D) Referent

Question 24

Which of the following concepts do critical scholars believe has the most potential to lead to increased exploitation of vulnerable populations?

A) Progressive capitalism
B) Organizational power
C) Unchecked globalization
D) Hegemony

Question 25

Mentors and charismatic leaders possess referent power.

Question 26

Workplace safety has become an increasingly important topic for organizational communication theorists who use critical theory.

Question 27

Legitimate power is often characterized by one's ability to withhold benefits and rewards from another individual.

Question 28

Critical theorizing actively questions the status quo.

Question 29

Over time, myths, stories, and metaphors can come to define appropriate behavior and may suspend employees' critical thinking.

Question 30

Jeremy Bentham's panopticon was developed to reduce the need for the surveillance of individuals.

Question 31

Critical theorists believe that employees must practice more personal responsibility in order to avoid workplace accidents.

Question 32

Critical approaches are often praised as taking a pro-profit approach.

Question 33

Most people think of a "real" job as one that involves

A) earning good wages.
B) producing something tangible.
C) doing something that makes a difference.
D) working somewhere long enough to get a raise.

Question 34

The Internet has become a very valuable tool for mobilizing grassroots organizers in search of critiquing the status quo.

Question 35

Critical theorists gather interpretive data but refuse to comment on issues of race, class, and gender to create a neutral speaking ground.

Question 36

Which of the following organizations is known for the "LUV story" that they have created?

A) Bank of America
B) Hallmark Greeting Cards
C) Southwest Airlines
D) Google

Question 37

In 2009, the global economy began shrinking for the first time since World War II.

Question 38

Ideologies are always neutral.

Question 39

Because critical theory focuses on power, the topic of discourse is not as important to this perspective.

Question 40

The concept of concertive control makes it increasingly difficult to hold on to the idea that organizational elites (i.e., managers) shape organizational processes and practices to support their own interests at the expense of other employees.

Question 41

Connect the concepts of ideology and hegemony using an example about our current economic conditions.

Question 42

Explain the process of concertive control, and construct an example of the self-policing that individuals do.

Question 43

Chapter 6 calls attention to organizational stories. Outline a successful organizational story, and explain its importance to critical organizational theory-especially the concepts of power and ideology.

Question 44

What are knowledge management (KM) systems, and what challenges do they bring to contemporary workplaces?

Question 45

Describe the concept of progressive capitalism, and provide an example of how this concept works. Are we currently in a period of progressive capitalism?

Question 46

Explain the roots of critical theory, paying particular attention to the ideas of Karl Marx. How have these ideas been appropriated in the service of systems of government?

Question 47

The concept of power is central to critical theory. French and Raven further clarified this focus by outlining five types of power. Identify and define these five types of power, providing a detailed example of each type.

Question 48

What does it mean to take a pro-profit approach, and why are critical approaches critiqued for not taking one?

Question 49

How is legitimate power determined? Provide an example of someone who has legitimate power.

Question 50

Considering that power is such a key part of critical theory, develop an essay that explains the reactions to power. What is resistance, and how is it relevant to the study of organizational communication? Be sure to include specific definitions and examples to demonstrate your points.

Question 51

Chapter 6 argues that many organizational members and employees have realized that the old social contract associated with work and job security no longer holds true. What is the old social contract, and how does it differ from the new social contract?

Question 52

Define power and provide an example to explain your definition. Why is the study of power so central to critical approaches?

Question 53

Define discourse according to Foucault.